DixPix Photographs

SOUTH CORDILLERA

Prehistory: PICTOGRAPHS

The tern "Pictograph" is used, as distinct from petroglyph, to refer to prehistoric art which was done with paint. Although in many situations, these have not proved as permanent as when the rock is actually engraved, examples remain. Oddly, the best known cases are from the south.

We will start, however, with an example from near Huaraz, Peru, which has faintly survived, with a mixture of motifs.

As with petroglyphs, one of the most common subjects are the cameloids, which undoubtedly provided much of the meat for indigenous populations.

Likely the most famous pictographic site in the southern cone is the Cave of Hands (Cueva de las Manos) in southern Argentina. These are thought to have been made by putting hands against the rock and spraying paint with some sort of blow-pipe. Now a World Heritage site.

Here and there among the human hands there are three-toed impressions, perhaps the feet of the ostrich-like ñandu.

And amid the hands, there are the more typical motifs of figures, cameloids and geometric designs.

Perhaps someone was recalling a nightmare in this case.

A densely populated sector of the Cave of Hands artwork, with black, white and red paints. Some of the hunting scenes are thought to be as much as 10,000 years old.

Far less known and smaller, there is also a Cave of Hands in southern Chile, here is one scene.